Realization of free space optics with OFDM under atmospheric turbulence

Free space optics (FSO) technology provides a promising solution for future broadband networks, offering high data transmission compared to RF technology. This work is focused on investigating the performance of an FSO system with OFDM and QAM. A 10 Gbps data stream is transmitted using a 4-level QAM sequence through the FSO system under different atmospheric conditions. Results indicate that the integration of SOA prolongs the maximum achievable distance with acceptable SNR to 185 km under clear weather conditions whereas under atmospheric fog, the maximum distance is extended to 2.5 km.     

Performance analysis of an 80 (8 × 10) Gbps RZ-DPSK based WDM-FSO system under combined effects of various weather conditions and atmospheric turbulence induced fading employing Gamma–Gamma fading model

Free space optics (FSO) has the capacity to be a vital element for the design of ubiquitous and reliable systems for next-generation networks owing to its large bandwidth and high data rate support. The last-mile issue finds an efficient solution in FSO in scenarios where fiber deployment is not feasible. However the FSO link is prone to fluctuations in optical signal strength due to various weather conditions and atmospheric turbulence. In this paper, an 80 (8 × 10) Gbps RZ-DPSK based WDM-FSO system is analyzed based on its performance on weather conditions viz. very clear, drizzle, haze, thin fog, moderate fog and thick fog. Link-margin analysis is also done. The turbulence model employed is the Gamma–Gamma fading model. The system is simulated on OptiSystem 14.0.     

实际大气中无线光通信的系统差错性能

无线光通信(FSO)系统的性能受大气湍流影响会产生剧烈波动。根据系统和大气参数评估系统差错性能的研究具有现实意义。以大气湍流信道和光电探测模型为基础,使用拟合概率分布替换常用的对数正态分布,建立了FSO系统差错性能的数学仿真模型,改进了湍流条件下系统误码率计算公式,并且进行全天的验证实验。实验结果显示,光强概率分布对系统性能有显著的影响,原有公式在某些情况下的计算结果有较大偏差,而改进公式的计算结果具有更好的适应性和准确性。该改进公式可有效评估湍流条件下FSO系统性能,并为相关理论研究提供参考。     

Fundamental performance limit of covert free-space optical communications

With the development of wireless communication, free-space optical (FSO) communication is becoming a highly promising technology. In this paper, we consider the covert FSO communication between two legitimate peers in the presence of an external warden. We establish a system model under a nonnegativity constraint, a peak optical intensity constraint, an average optical intensity constraint and a covertness constraint. For the considered system, the optimal input signal is shown to follow a uniform distribution. Based on the optimal input signal and covertness constraint, we obtain an upper bound that should be satisfied by the transmitter’s peak optical intensity, which provides a basis for the transmitter to set the transmit optical intensity. We also derive the upper bound of maximum amount of information transmitted covertly, which reveals the fundamental performance limit of covert FSO communication. Finally, we verify the theoretical analysis by numerical simulations.     

Reflection assisted beam propagation model for obstructed line-of-sight FSO links

A non-line-of-sight (NLOS) infra-red reflection based beam propagation model is proposed as a supplement to conventional terrestrial free space optical (FSO) communication system. This ray propagation model lets tactically positioned optical reflectors to smartly exploit the aggregated advantages of mirror characteristics to bridge the existent communication gap between two FSO nodes due to inclined or obstructed line-of-sight view. Additionally, a numerical framework of the proposed system is presented that analytically explores the optical losses induced by harmonic distortions and the resultant beam divergence at the receiver. The impact of the different reflectors on the traversing beam is then investigated through an experimental FSO test-bed set in an outdoor environment in terms of phase shifts, divergence loss, noise margin and maximum achievable link length. Matlab based simulations, based on the experimental outcomes, envisages that concave reflectors can effectively compensate the turbulence induced signal fading and restrict the beam divergence loss; thereby, improving the maximum achievable NLOS FSO link length.     

Average capacity optimization in free-space optical communication system over atmospheric turbulence channels with pointing errors

A model is proposed to study the average capacity optimization in free-space optical (FSO) channels, accounting for effects of atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors. For a given transmitter laser power, it is shown that both transmitter beam divergence angle and beam waist can be tuned to maximize the average capacity. Meanwhile, their optimum values strongly depend on the jitter and operation wavelength. These results can be helpful for designing FSO communication systems.     

Optimization of free space optics parameters: An optimum solution for bad weather conditions

Free Space Optics Systems (FSO) is one of the most effective solutions, especially for atmospheric turbulence due to the weather and environment structure. Free space optics system suffers from various limitations. A well-known disadvantage of FSO is its sensitivity on local weather conditions-primarily to haze and rain, resulting in substantial loss of optical signal power over the communication path. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the quality of data transmission using Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) with highlighting several factors that will affect the quality of data transmission. The results of these analyses are to develop a system of quality-free space optics for a high data rate transmission. From the result analysis, FSO wavelength with 1550 nm produces less effect in atmospheric attenuation. Short link range between the transmitter and receiver can optimize the FSO system transmission parameters or components. Based on the analysis, it is recommended to develop an FSO system of 2.5 Gbps with 1550 nm wavelength and link range up to 150 km at the clear weather condition of bit-error-rate (BER) 10⁻⁹.     

Ultrafast carrier dynamics in semiconductor nanostructures: interplay between coherence and relaxation

The strong coupling between coherent and incoherent ultrafast phenomena in the electro-optical response of semiconductor nanostructures is discussed theoretically within a density matrix formalism. In particular, the problem of scattering-induced damping of Bloch oscillations in superlattices is reviewed. Moreover, a generalization to ‘open systems’ of the conventional semiconductor Bloch equations is discussed. The presence of spatial boundary conditions manifests itself through self-energy corrections and additional source terms in the kinetic equations. As an example, some simulated experiments of quantum transport phenomena through double-barrier structures are reviewed.     

湍流大气光通信系统误码率分析与实验研究

自由空间光通信(FSO)系统的性能由于受大气湍流影响会产生剧烈波动。根据系统和大气参数评估系统差错性能的研究具有现实意义。以大气湍流信道和光电探测两个模型为基础,建立了FSO系统差错性能的数学仿真模型,提出了湍流条件下系统误码率计算公式。对仿真结果与弱湍流条件下获得的实验数据进行了比较,并依据此模型对光强起伏和背景噪声等因素的影响进行仿真。仿真结果表明,基于该模型的仿真结果与实验数据一致,光强起伏是引起系统性能波动的主要因素,最优判决阈值需根据实际大气条件进行调整。该模型可有效评估湍流条件下FSO系统性能,并为相关理论研究提供参考。     

Performance comparison of various modulation schemes over free space optical (FSO) link employing Gamma–Gamma fading model

Free Space Optics (FSO) is an emerging line-of-sight technology intending to provide last-mile solution to the network problem where fiber technology is not feasible. The use of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology for FSO is inspired due to the demand for broadband communication. This technique has brought a revolution because the system data capacity is enhanced by simply adding more number of channels and reducing the channel spacing without having the need of more than one FSO link. By reducing the channel spacing to an appropriate level, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) based FSO systems are also be attained and are reported by various research works. FSO finds applications in vast areas like backhaul networks for cellular communication, disaster recovery, LAN–LAN connectivity, high-definition TV, MAN-extension, video transmission, medicine industry and surveillance. However, its usage is limited due to the serious challenges of link vulnerability to weather and atmospheric turbulence-induced fading. This paper is based on a WDM-FSO system. An 8-channel WDM based FSO system is proposed and performance is evaluated on widely accepted modulation schemes under weak, moderate and strong turbulence conditions. Gamma–Gamma fading model is employed for atmospheric turbulence modelling. The system is simulated on OptiSystem 14.0.     

Enhancement of free space optical link in heavy rain attenuation using multiple beam concept

Free space optics (FSO) has attracted a lot of attention for a variety of applications in telecommunications area, and it is dream of every researcher and telecommunication society to make it a real alternative solution for the last mile problem, to replace fiber optics. FSO is much preferred because of its low maintenance cost and deployment time. FSO with single-beam system is vulnerable to atmospheric attenuation, so to overcome this, a multiple-beam FSO transceiver system has become prominent and is usually used. In this paper, average rain attenuation is evaluated from the collected rain intensity data which are collected for a period of seven months, and implemented in the study concerning results relating link distance, and received optical power of using multiple-beam FSO system in tropical rainy weather. Comparison is made in terms of received optical power, geometrical losses, atmospheric losses, and bit error rate (BER) on using different number of optical beams, based on simulation at data rate of 1 Gb/s. From the results it is clear that the quality of received power is improved by using up to four beams, along with link distance up to 1141.2 m as compared to one-beam, two-beam, and three-beam, with link distances 833.3 m, 991.0 m, 1075.4 m, respectively.     

Severe climate sway in coherent CDMA-OSSB-FSO transmission system

Free space optics (FSO) link at high transmission rate is delimited due to its perceptivity to diversified surroundings especially in hilly regions. A demonstration of CDMA-FSO coherent detection system is reported in this work to achieve a prolonged 10 Gbps-FSO link with acceptable SNR under the impact profound haze, rain and fog environment. Further, the work is extended to weigh the proposed CO-CDMA-OSSB-FSO transmission system against OFDM-OSSB-FSO direct detection system 0045 and 0050.     

无线激光通信系统弱光干扰技术

为了探求对无线激光通信最有效、最实用的干扰方式,针对目前应用范围最广泛的强度调制/直接检测无线激光通信系统,采用理论分析、仿真和实验相结合的方法详细地研究了无线激光通信系统的弱光干扰的原理和条件,验证了弱光干扰的可行性,发现其干扰现象主要表现为误码率升高。同时,研究了干扰光的不同重复频率、功率和占空比对采用不同通信体制、速率、发射功率等设计的无线激光通信系统产生的不同的干扰原理和现象。发现了同步通信与异步通信因其不同的时钟体制造成的弱光干扰差异,同步通信主要发生“比特干扰”和 “时钟恢复干扰”,异步通信系统主要发生“起始位干扰”和“数据位干扰”。由于异步通信中帧结构和编码都较为简单,与同步通信相比更易受到干扰光的影响,受到干扰的程度更为严重。     

Simulation research of medium-short distance free-space optical communication with optical amplification based on polarization shift keying modulation

Circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK) modulation technique has many advantages such as excellent BER performance and freedom from the alignment of polarization coordinates of the transmitter and the receiver, etc., and it turns out to be a good choice to FSO system. In this paper, a FSO system using CPolSK modulation is studied by simulation; it is found that the communication performance of the system is excellent in most weather condition. Additionally, three ways of optical signal amplification are proposed, and contrastive analysis on performance of corresponding optical amplification systems is carried out by examining SNR、BER and transmission distance with different specific attenuation. The results show that the system with optical amplifier at the transmitter have the optimum performance, and then the system with optical amplifier at the both ends with the same total gain, it is worst for the system with optical amplifier at the receiver. In addition, the safety factor for high emission power induced by optical amplification is also considered in this paper for practical application. The study above may be utilized in the system design for enhancing performance.     

Performance analysis of space-shift keying over negative-exponential and log-normal FSO channels

The average bit-error rate(ABER) performance of free-space optical(FSO) communication links is investigated for space-shift keying(SSK) over log-normal and negative-exponential atmospheric turbulence channels. SSK is compared with repetition codes and a single-input single-output system using multiple pulse amplitude modulations. Simulation results show that the signal-to-noise ratio gain of SSK largely increases with greater spectral efficiencies and/or higher turbulence effects. A tight bound for ABER is derived based on an exact moment generation function(MGF) for negative-exponential channel and an approximate MGF for log-normal channel.Finally, extensive Monte Carlo simulations are run to validate the analytical analysis.     

Experimental determination and comparison of rain attenuation in free space optic link operating at 532 nm and 655 nm wavelength

The demand for high data rate, security and reliable communication is driving the development of free space optic communication (FSO) technology. The atmospheric effects such as scintillation, absorption and scattering severely affect the availability and range of the FSO system. The atmospheric rain absorbs and scatters the laser beam energy resulting in attenuation of the propagating signal. Initial development of FSO technology primarily used wavelength from infrared spectrum. In the recent years, the interest in visible light carrier for FSO applications is consistently increasing. In this paper, the effect of rain over two optical wavelengths from the visible spectrum i.e. 532 nm and 655 nm has been experimentally evaluated and results for the specific rain attenuation at 532 nm and 655 nm wavelengths have been compared.     

Turbulence mitigation scheme based on multiple-user detection in an orbital-angular-momentum multiplexed system

Atmospheric turbulence(AT) induced crosstalk can significantly impair the performance of a free-space optical(FSO)communication link using orbital angular momentum(OAM) multiplexing.In this paper,we propose a multiple-user detection(MUD) turbulence mitigation scheme in an OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link.First,we present a MUD equivalent communication model for an OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link under AT.In the equivalent model,each input bit stream represents one user's information.The deformed OAM spatial modes caused by AT,instead of the pure OAM spatial modes,are used as information carriers,and the overlapping between the deformed OAM spatial modes are computed as the correlation coefficients between the users.Then,we present a turbulence mitigation scheme based on MUD idea to enhance AT tolerance of the OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link.In the proposed scheme,the crosstalk caused by AT is used as a useful component to deduce users' information.The numerical results show that the performance of the OAM-multiplexed communication link has greatly improved by the proposed scheme.When the turbulence strength C_n~2 is 1 × 10~(-15) m~(-2/3),the transmission distance is 1000 m and the channel signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)is 26 dB,the bit-error-rate(BER) performance of four spatial multiplexed OAM modes l_m = + 1,+2,+3,+4 are all close to 10~(-5),and there is a 2-3 fold increase in the BER performance in comparison with those results without the proposed scheme.In addition,the proposed scheme is more effective for an OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link with a larger OAM mode topological charge interval.The proposed scheme is a promising direction for compensating the interference caused by AT in the OAM-multiplexed FSO communication link.     

2.50 Gbit/s optical CDMA over FSO communication system

Optical CDMA over FSO communication system is very effective to provide high data rate transmission with very low bit error rate and low amount of multiple access interference. In this paper, we have presented optical CDMA over FSO communication system to the range of 8000 m. The simulative results reveal that the transmission distance is limited mainly by the multi-access interference (MAI) which arises when there are number of users in the system because of the fact that one user data becomes noisy for all other users in the channel.     

Effect of partially space coherent illumination on the performance of a defocused optical system with a slit aperture

The focusing properties of an aberration free defocused optical system with a slit aperture have been investigated in the case of quasimonochromatic partially space coherent light. The point spread function has been plotted for sinc and gaussian forms of the mutual coherence function. In certain cases, partially coherent illumination results in an improved performance of the system.     

Optical networks, last mile access and applications

Free Space Optical (FSO) links can be used to setup FSO communication networks or to supplement radio and optical fiber networks. Hence, it is the broadband wireless solution for closing the “last mile” connectivity gap throughout metropolitan networks. Optical wireless fits well into dense urban areas and is ideally suited for urban applications. This paper gives an overview of free-space laser communications. Different network architectures will be described and investigated regarding reliability. The usage of “Optical Repeaters”, Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint solutions will be explained for setting up different network architectures. After having explained the different networking topologies and technologies, FSO applications will be discussed in section 2, including terrestrial applications for short and long ranges, and space applications. Terrestrial applications for short ranges cover the links between buildings on campus or different buildings of a company, which can be established with low-cost technology. For using FSO for long-range applications, more sophisticated systems have to be used. Hence, different techniques regarding emitted optical power, beam divergence, number of beams and tracking will be examined. Space applications have to be divided into FSO links through the troposphere, for example up- and downlinks between the Earth and satellites, and FSO links above the troposphere (e.g., optical inter-satellite links). The difference is that links through the troposphere are mainly influenced by weather conditions similar but not equal to terrestrial FSO links. Satellite orbits are above the atmosphere and therefore, optical inter-satellite links are not influenced by weather conditions. In section 3 the use of optical wireless for the last mile will be investigated and described in more detail. Therefore important design criteria for connecting the user to the “backbone” by FSO techniques will be covered, e.g., line of sight, network topology, reliability and availability. The advantages and disadvantages of different FSO technologies, as well as the backbone technology are discussed in this respect. Furthermore, the last mile access using FSO will be investigated for different environment areas (e.g., urban, rural, mountain) and climate zones. The availability of the FSO link is mainly determined by the local atmospheric conditions and distance and will be examined for the last mile. Results of various studies will complete these investigations. Finally, an example for realizing a FSO network for the last mile will be shown. In this example FSO transmitters with light emitting diodes (LED) instead of laser diodes will be described. By using LEDs, problems with laser- and eye safety are minimized. Some multimedia applications (like video-conferences, live TV-transmissions, etc.) will illustrate the range of applications for FSO last mile networks.